• Hong Kong: New school books claim territory was not a British colony

    From ltlee1@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 26 18:36:12 2022
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61810263

    "New textbooks for Hong Kong schools will state the territory was never a British colony, local media report.

    Instead, the books declare the British "only exercised colonial rule" in Hong Kong - a distinction drawn to highlight China's claims of unbroken sovereignty.

    China has always asserted it never gave up sovereignty and its surrender of Hong Kong to the British was due to unfair Opium War treaties in the 1800s.

    The UK returned Hong Kong to China in 1997 after ruling for over 150 years.

    During its rule, it referred to Hong Kong - a port with a deep harbour that grew into a booming city state, and one of the world's leading financial centres - as a colony, as well as a dependent territory.

    The United Kingdom governed the area from 1841 to 1941, and from 1945 to 1997, after which it was handed back to China."

    Hong Kong as we know it today consists of the Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territory. The former two, 29 sq miles and 18 square miles respectively, were ceded to Britain. The New Territory has an area of 350+ square miles was leased to
    Britain for 99 years. Sovereignty of most of Hong Kong belongs to China most of the time EVEN IF one accepts British view concerning the unequal treaties.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From A. Filip@21:1/5 to ltlee1@hotmail.com on Mon Jun 27 02:05:16 2022
    ltlee1 <ltlee1@hotmail.com> wrote:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61810263

    "New textbooks for Hong Kong schools will state the territory was never a British colony, local media report.

    Instead, the books declare the British "only exercised colonial rule" in Hong Kong - a distinction drawn to highlight China's claims of unbroken sovereignty.

    China has always asserted it never gave up sovereignty and its surrender of Hong Kong to the British was due to unfair Opium War treaties in the 1800s.

    The UK returned Hong Kong to China in 1997 after ruling for over 150 years.

    During its rule, it referred to Hong Kong - a port with a deep harbour
    that grew into a booming city state, and one of the world's leading
    financial centres - as a colony, as well as a dependent territory.

    The United Kingdom governed the area from 1841 to 1941, and from 1945 to 1997, after which it was handed back to China."

    Hong Kong as we know it today consists of the Hong Kong Island,
    Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territory. The former two, 29 sq miles
    and 18 square miles respectively, were ceded to Britain. The New
    Territory has an area of 350+ square miles was leased to Britain for
    99 years. Sovereignty of most of Hong Kong belongs to China most of
    the time EVEN IF one accepts British view concerning the unequal
    treaties.

    So what? The Pope is a bishop of Rome elected by cardinals acting as
    parish priests of Rome - Yet Another Legal Fiction.

    HK is back to China (PRC) because China "failed to fail". China have
    merely switched to new "red dynasty" rule. I bet UK treated the lease
    as face saving legal fiction for China but it have turned out otherwise,
    IMHO difference between colony and mostly leased colony is not too
    significant but it tells a lot about people making it crucial.

    Calling poor "economically disadvantaged" does not make them rich.

    --
    A. Filip : Big (Tech) Brother is watching you.
    | brain, n: The apparatus with which we think that we think.
    | (Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary")

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)